Chapter 26: Facing Yang Chen

From a distance behind the wolves, a small lithe figure was rapidly approaching them. With anxiety filled eyes, Yang Mengyao was sprinting as fast as she could. She could see that Yang Bin was not in good condition. 

Hearing her voice, a wide grin appeared on Yang Bin's face. He had done it, and now was the time to reap the rewards of his work. His taut body began to relax.

While Yang Bin was looking at the new arrival like a savior, the wolves saw her as a nightmare. They could see that Yang Mengyao was much stronger than their current prey, and since they were weakened by the side effects of pack resonance and exhausted from the long chase, victory was impossible. After taking one glance at Yang Bin, the two immediately fled. Each going in opposite directions.

Seeing this, Yang Bin's jaws dropped. Fleeing!? Are you serious!? Where's your pride as demon beasts? Were you terrified by a little girl?

"Mengyao, chase after them!" Yang Bin urgently called, as his leg gave out, causing him to collapse onto the ground. 

Upon hearing his cry, Yang Mengyao hesitated slightly. If she was to leave and chase one of the wolves, Yang Bin would be rendered defenseless. Any stray beast or competitor could take advantage of Yang Bin's weakness and disqualify him. But she didn't chase, all of Yang Bin's efforts would go down the drain.

"Hurry! Don't worry about me!" Yang Bin cried again. This time there was a hint of desperation in his voice. 

Reacting quickly, Yang Mengyao took a small sac out of her pouch and threw it at Yang Bin. "Brother, there are some pills inside! I'll come back soon!" She said before chasing after the Dark Wolf.

Catching the sac, Yang Bin peeked inside and found four shiny green pills. They were qi restoration pills. Without hesitating, he popped one into his mouth and started meditating, urging his meridians to quickly devour and assimilate the pill. The effects were prominent; he could feel his weariness being washed away. 

With his eyes closed, Yang Bin used his ears to listen to his surroundings: the soft chirping of insects and occasionally the rustle of leaves in the wind. The fragile tranquility continued. A couple seconds later, the effects of the pill ran out, rousing Yang Bin from his meditation. Still feeling weak, he hesitated slightly. After a moment of deliberating, he consumed a second pill.

The effects of the second pill was even more short-lived. The effects of the second pill aren't as strong as the first one. The efficiency seems to go down the more pills I consume. Yang Bin thought, as he slowly stood up. My qi has already recovered more than half. This should be enough to fend for myself against any stray beast.

"Brother, are you there?" A soft call resounded, followed by Yang Mengyao's appearance in Yang Bin's sight. Aside from the red qi swirling around her, she looked exactly the same as when she left. She tentatively looked around while dragging what looked like a black rope.

"I'm here! Mengyao, you're already back?" Yang Bin quickly responded. He took a closer look at the object in her hand and froze. "Er, Mengyao, is that Dark Wolf?" He pointed at her hand.

Hearing his voice, a smile bloomed onto Yang Mengyao's face. "Yep! I managed to catch it." She cheerfully replied. 

Yang Bin gulped hard. What Yang Mengyao held wasn't a rope, but it was Dark Wolf's tail. She was dragging the wolf's body. "Isn't that heavy?" 

Yang Mengyao nodded seriously. "It is. I had to use one of the talismans you gave me."

Despite being doubtful of his own talismans efficacy, Yang Bin didn't question it. "Forget it. Let me retrieve the beast core. Once I'm done, we'll chase down the Wind Wolf together." He walked towards the Dark Wolf and knelt down.

"Be careful! It's still alive." Yang Mengyao hastily cautioned. 

Yang Bin looked at Yang Mengyao in horror, who was innocently blinking at him, and then back at the Dark Wolf. Now that he was next to it, he could see that the Dark Wolf was barely breathing, and its wide open eyes were filled with pain and hatred. Immediately, Yang Bin activated Extreme Piercing Finger and killed it. 

"Mengyao, next time, you need to kill the demon beast before doing anything with it. Some demon beasts are very cunning and would make a final desperate attack the moment you let down your guard." Yang Bin instructed as he worked on the wolf corpse. He was speaking from his experiences.

Standing on the side, Yang Mengyao rapidly nodded her head. 

After a minute of stabbing, Yang Bin stood up with a black beast core in his hand. It was warm and the color seemed to absorb all the surrounding lights. "Now let's go find the Gust Wolf." Pocketing the beast core, he took the water bottle from Yang Mengyao and washed his hands. 

"But how will we do that?" Yang Mengyao inquired, as she took the bottle back and stored it away.

"My last clash with the Wind Wolf resulted in it having a broken nose. It shouldn't have recovered yet, so there would be some blood on the ground. As long as we are able to find the trail of blood, we can use that to track it down." Yang Bin explained as he walked to the place where the two wolves separated. Activating Mystic Pupils, he crouched down and slowly scanned the ground. 

His conjecture was correct. On the soft dirt, there were a few inconspicuous dots of blood. Ordinary people would have missed it, but Yang Bin, who was actively looking for these clues with Mystic Pupils, couldn't.

"It's this way!" Yang Bin declared. Standing up, he began slowly following the trail with Yang Mengyao standing close by. 

There were many twists and turns, as if the wolf knew about the trail of blood and was trying to throw its pursuers off. Unfortunately for it, Yang Bin had his eyes glued to the ground. He was so focused that he didn't even notice the Wind Wolf's body, despite it being only a few meters ahead of it. Though, just because Yang Bin wasn't paying attention doesn't mean Yang Mengyao wasn't as well.

Noticing something ahead of them, Yang Mengyao tugged on Yang Bin's shirt to stop him. "Brother…" She murmured, warning him.

Feeling the tug, Yang Bin immediately stopped and looked at her. "What is it?"

Instead of responding to his question, Yang Mengyao simply pointed ahead.

Yang Bin looked ahead, and what he saw stunned him.

In front of the duo was Wind Wolf, dead in a pool of its blood. There were burn marks all over its fur, and next to it was a young boy. A small red bird was perched on his shoulder, as he was cutting into the wolf to retrieve the beast core. 

"It appears that I have encountered other competitors." The boy casually said without looking back. His action showed that he wasn't afraid of them. 

Hearing this voice, Yang Bin frowned slightly. It sounded familiar to him, awfully familiar. 

While Yang Bin was pondering about where he heard his voice, the boy finished retrieving the beast core. He stood up and turned around.

Upon seeing his face, Yang Bin sharply inhaled. "Yang Chen!"

Yang Chen was equally surprised seeing him. "Eh? It's you two." Seeing Yang Bin's condition and the way they were eyeing the beast core in his hand, Yang Chen was able to put the pieces together. Yang Bin fought the Wind Wolf, and once Wind Wolf started losing, it escaped. 

Naturally, Yang Chen wasn't going to hand over the beast core just because of that. He did have a favorable impression of him, but that wasn't enough for him to give away 10 points. "The Wind Wolf ran at me, so I had to kill it. I hope you don't mind." Yang Chen said, not sounding apologetic.

Yang Bin smiled bitterly at his words. He did covet the beast core, but he couldn't do anything. Yang Chen was at the eighth rank of body tempering, three entire ranks above Yang Bin. Not to mention, Yang Bin wasn't even in his peak condition. He shook his head. With much difficulty, he spoke,"It's fine. Since you killed it, you deserve it." 

Yang Bin tugged on Yang Mengyao's arm, signaling her to leave, but Yang Mengyao didn't budge. Instead, she took a step forward with a furious expression, shocking Yang Bin. "I mind!"

Taken aback, Yang Chen stared at her. "Little miss, do you intend on snatching it from me?" 

"I will!" Yang Mengyao shouted. Her qi began to surge. 

On the side, Yang Bin thought she was being rash and was about to stop her, but after feeling her qi fluctuations, he froze. 

Yang Mengyao wasn't a sixth rank body tempering cultivator, she was at the seventh rank.